Saturday night's moon is a Supermoon: Dave Longley's blog

Saturday night's moon is a Supermoon: Dave Longley's blog

When the full moon rises at 8:41 Saturday evening, it will look a bit bigger and brighter.

(WSYR-TV Syracuse) When the full moon rises Saturday evening, it will be a Supermoon. It will look a bit brighter and a bit larger.

The moon's orbit around the earth is an ellipse (oval). When the moon is farthest from the earth, it's at apogee. When it's close to the earth, it's at perigee.

Saturday's full moon occurs when the moon is at perigee. That means that it's a little closer to us than the average of roughly 239,000 miles. Thus it should be a little bigger and brighter. Trust me, the difference is slight. However, if you catch the moon when it comes up in the east-southeast Saturday evening at 8:41, it should appear a bit bigger.

Extra humidity in the sky might give the moon a reddish or orange tinge. That's because the added atmospheric moisture allows primarily the longer (or red) wavelengths of light to make it to our eyes.

Copyright 2014 localsyr.com Nexstar Broadcasting, All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.